By Eyo Nsima

The Chief Advocacy officer and Deputy Managing Director, World LPG Association, WLPGA, Mr. Michael Kelly, has painted the outlook of the global LPG market as complicated.

Speaking at The Daily Africa Summit, a very high-profile event, which had over 200 Chief Executives, Chairmen of top companies, Regulators, policy makers, financiers, consultants, marketers, consumers, journalists and other stakeholders as attendees, on August 7, 2022, he said the global LPG market was haunted by some issues and problems.

He said: “Let me thank the organizers of TheDaily Africa Summit for this invitation. It is always interesting to speak to different types of organizations about what’s happening in our industry. The topic – Global Energy Crisis: The Issues, Problems, Prospects & Opportunities in Producing, Distributing and Utilising LPG in Africa and Other Continents – is very timely and topical, particularly because of the amount of growth we are seeing in the Nigerian market in particular over the last two or three years and that growth seems to be accelerating.

“Indeed, it is a very exciting time in Nigeria, but it is also quite a complicated time on what is going on around the world. I will like to walk you through some of the different challenges that we are facing as an industry. These challenges are not unique to our industry so it is happening to everyone, but it is certainly an uncertain time with a lot of changes and a lot of geo-political upheaval, which I am sure you are all aware of. It is interesting to think about what the implications will be for our industry in developed and developing countries and what we as an organization can do.

“The World LPG Association and I will tell you a little about who we are and the problems facing us. Obviously, one of the most impactful of these events has been the covid-19 pandemic that we seem to be moving away from.

“Unfortunately, there have been knock-on effects from the covid-19 pandemic, including a lot of supply chain issues that impact on the global economy. One thing to bear in mind about the pandemic is that the LPG industry was given the permission to operate everywhere around the world. I do not know a single market where the government did not grant the LPG industry the right to continue operations even under the most stringent shelter at home orders. Even in Shanghai or recently where they had a very strict lockdown, the industry continued to deliver energy and demonstrated that we are extremely flexible, adaptable, resilient and reliable to count on when there is a crisis. That is something that all of us should be very proud of.
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